Seconds 1966
We got the Criterion Channel cut on so we’re going to be watching real movies and writing about them.
I started watching Seconds in something like 1999 and finally finished it last night. You might know it as the movie in which an older unhappy guy fakes his own death and gets plastic surgery to look like Rock Hudson, gets what amounts to a lot of money in 1966 as well as a totally legit career as a painter, and somehow still isn’t happy. It’s like Taylor Swift still writing sad songs despite her money and success, and I say this as a Swiftie: how can you not be happy when you look like you have it all? But people manage to still be crying into their pot of gold. See also: Elvis.
Never mind that, though, because Seconds has so many plot mysteries when you start thinking about it that this could only be a metaphor and not a plot anyway. I think it’s about being in the closet, because the original guy before he became Rock Hudson went willingly into this fucked up situation looking for an old college buddy who he bought matching watches with back in school, and doesn’t want to sleep with his wife. Also, when Rock goes back to visit his “widow” at the end posing as her dead husband’s friend, it seems to me that she’s relieved that this guy was her husband’s side piece. It would have explained a lot about how he knew so much about her husband and their bland black and white life.
But the conventional wisdom is that it’s about good old government paranoia, bolstered by the stunt casting of three actors who were blacklisted. My husband was super disturbed by the thing that literally happened at the ending, metaphor or not, but I took it as an opportunity to be grateful for the life I have, at least for a moment before I started being anxious again.
People booed this movie at Cannes. My husband said it could be because they were expecting a happy ending, but I don’t think so if they were there to watch French films in the 60s.
What Seconds really reminds me of is Dead and Buried if it made more sense. Have you seen this, and what do you think?
sevendoorsofcinema 
I love this movie. I remember it used to come on in the middle of the night on VH1 of all channels. I would watch this or The Swimmer depending on the night or how lonely or depressed I was. I always thought there was a new life, government meddling and some sort of communist / anti communist message in there but the idea that maybe the old guy just wanted a piece of ass so he had to change his looks makes sense too.
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I think I saw another comment on IMDB comparing this to The Swimmer, actually. I still need to watch that one, and I remember when you reviewed it. You’re probably right and Seconds has both a straightforward and a paranoid meaning. Yay for VH1!
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